The Palestinians organized steps in the western city of the West Bank of Ramallah to commemorate the Nakba, or “catastrophe”, their mass dispossession during the creation of Israel in 1948.
More than 50,000 people have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 and a lock of aid threaten famine, while Israeli leaders continue to express the desire to empty the territory of the Palestinians.
In the West Bank, also occupied since 1967, Israeli forces have moved tens of thousands of refugee camps as part of a major military operation.
This year marks the 77th anniversary of the NAKBA, during which around 750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their land after Israel declared an independent state of the territory.
In the city of Ramallah, the Palestinian flags and the “return” brand blacks stole at the road intersections on Wednesday, while the schoolchildren were bus in the city center to participate in the commemoration of a week.
During an event, the young boys wearing Palestinian scarves Kuffiyyeh gave flags and carried a giant replica, a symbol of the houses lost in what is now Israel to which families hope to come back.
No event was planned in Gaza, where more than 19 months of war and an Israeli bombardment left the residents without and moved.
Moomin Al-Sherbini, a resident of the southern city of Gaza in Khan Younis, told the AFP news agency that he thought that history was repeated.
“Our lives here in Gaza have become a long Nakba, losing dear beings, our destroyed houses, our missing livelihoods.”
Almost every 2.4 million people in Gaza were moved at least once during the War of Israel.
In early May, the Israeli security firm approved the plans for an extended military offensive in Gaza, targeting the “conquest” of the territory while moving its people in mass, attracting international condemnation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government was trying to find third countries to welcome the Gaza population, months after US President Donald Trump suggested that they were expelled and the territory is refurbished as a holiday destination.
“The Nakba day is no longer just a memory – it is a daily reality that we live in Gaza,” said Malak Radwan, 36, speaking of Nuseirat at the center of the enclave.
“It is a miserable day in the life of Palestinian refugees,” Nael Nakhleh, 52, told Ramallah, whose family comes from the village of Al-Majdal near Jaffa in what is now Israel.
The Palestinian refugees maintain their request for a return to the villages and cities of current Israel that they or their relatives were forced to leave in 1948. The “right of return” remains a central problem in negotiations for a long time between Israel and Palestine.
